Email this article to a friend

Monday, Feb 26, 2007, 8:23 am

Erroneous Blog Post

CORRECTION: The previous headline to this post stated there was a failure by WaPo to publish the poll data (as discussed below) which reflects public opinion at odds with the Post's editorial view. That was incorrect. The poll in its entirety was in fact published. The point of the Think Progress post was not that the data wasn't published, but that the specific question about Murtha's plan was not mentioned in the separate news article about the poll. And I failed to correctly recognize and describe the circumstances, and misreported the story.

But the link highlighted this morning by Think Progress - to that article discussing the poll, and which is now time-stamped 5:10 PM (Eastern Time) - does directly refer to the Murtha proposal.

Apologies for my screw up.

Thanks to Carl in comments, for prompting me to revisit.
-----Think Progress reports:

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that Americans strongly back [Dem Congressman John] Murtha’s plan to strengthen U.S. forces:

Would you support or oppose Congress trying to block Bush’s plan by creating new rules on troop training and rest time that would limit the number of troops available for duty in Iraq?

Support: 58 percent
Oppose: 39 percent
Unknown: 4 percent

But...

The Washington Post editorial board — which four years ago called President Bush’s plan for war in Iraq “an operation essential to American security” — is now harshly attacking Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) effort to increase support for the overstretched U.S. military and restrain Bush’s Iraq escalation.

The Post claims that Murtha’s plan “crudely [hamstrings] the ability of military commanders to deploy troops,” and that “Murtha’s cynicism is matched by an alarming ignorance about conditions in Iraq.”

And so

The Washington Post’s article on the new poll doesn’t mention the results of the question on Murtha’s plan.